I'm not sure I could draw buildings that well with my rings. A day since I dropped the commission in his lap and he's already got… A hundred photographs of Hub City from various periods of history, then from them other photographs of contemporary buildings in the same style. Notes on sunlight levels throughout the year, the water table, prevailing wind directions. Notes on what he wants to simply restore (basically nothing), modify (some of the churches and civic buildings) and what might possibly be stripped for materials. Some notes on scheduling, because he understands that people are living here and need to live and eat somewhere. The bare bones of costings and timelines for the acquisition of materials that can't be acquired locally.
Architectural design
does make use of more specialised artistic skills than most art forms. As well as engineering knowledge (for building materials) And a solid sense of history. Also evidently quite the organisational skillset.
No real building plans yet, but… I'm impressed.
I… Think the Orange Lantern Corps might have a job for him once the war with the Reach is over.
Well, that would be a heck of a step up in his career.
Mayor Connelly-Fermin exhales through her nose. "I didn't realise that Hub City used to look… Good."
"No." Mr. Schreiber shakes his head. "It did not. Substandard materials, poor layouts… Even the buildings that looked good were copies of other buildings from elsewhere. You think that it did because it became worse later." He turns to Queen Artemis. "I am sorry that it is not better organised. I was not expecting royalty."
That's fair. All this
was a bit off-the-cuff by OL. Perhaps, with Helmut's steady hand giving it some consistency, Hub City could become one of the most beautiful cities in DC America.
"Is this all your work?"
"No, no, no. Not all of it. I have, ah… Assistants. At the moment they are mostly out making recordings, checking levels of decay…" He shakes his head, shrugging. "Because we will have to replace so much, it is more about knowing what we can leave until later rather than what can remain."
I can see this being a job too big for one man. And evidently he's been considering his health.
Assistants are new. I guess his wife leaned on him about that.
"It… Ah. It hurt me in the soul to see a city like this. So unloved."
A wise man listens to his wife. It's good to see him so passionate about his work.
He doesn't say anything for a moment, staring wistfully at a bird's eye view picture of Hub City. Then he looks around and noticed that we're all staring at him, and he tenses up again.
"But-. But we can fix that, given time. And resources. And since Orange Lantern is throwing money at the problem, it is turned into a manageable problem."
One of the ultimate superpowers: All the Money.
Queen Artemis nods. "Master Schreiber, do you have a supernatural power?"
"No. No, God be with me. I do not-. I am not comfortable with that."
Reasonably devout, I see. Hopefully he isn't suffering any PTSD from using the Spear of Destiny to stab a nazi.
"Mister Schreiber is an exceptionally skilled but essentially -and I mean no offence when I say this- normal man."
He nods. "And I am very happy to be a normal man. I like my work. And I appreciate having this opportunity. One civic building is a notable work. Rebuilding an entire city, well… If I am successful, it will put my name in the history books."
And thankfully for a better reason than his genetic original.
"And work as a doctoral thesis?"
"Ah… Maybe. It might…" He shrugs, shaking his head. "Even if it does not-. No. If I had a choice between the two, I would choose this."
He might well join the headiest of heights amongst other grand, famous
architects.
I wait for a moment, but Artemis doesn't seem to have anything else that she wants to ask him.
"Well, ah… Thank you for your time, Mister Schreiber. I think we can leave you to it..?" Artemis nods. "Madam Mayor?"
To be fair, she probably doesn't really have a point of reference for the designs yet. They basically came straight here from Themyscira, didn't they, no stops to see other modern Cities...
"Yes… This way."
We follow her out of Mr. Schreiber's studio, into… Well, I suspect that it used to be a break room of some sort. Cracked plastic chairs, soft chairs held together with masking tape and… There's a kettle on a sideboard.
Heh, I've seen rooms like that before. Usually a result of rapid rearrangement of offices or other workspaces...
Mayor Connelly-Fermin shrugs helplessly. Queen Artemis hesitates for a moment, then makes a circling motion with her right hand. The floor shimmers, the chairs levitate a little and the light fittings rattle as… Stains vanish, threadbare fabric is restored and tears seal themselves.
Heck, if she didn't do it OL probably would have.
"Ah… Thank… You."
Queen Artemis sits primly down on a chair made for ease of stacking, hands placed neat in her lap. "It is no matter."
An incongruous image, a magical lady in what I'm betting is a tubular-frame steel chair with a plastic seat.
The mayor takes a seat close by, pulling it a little closer so that she can look directly at Artemis. I generate a construct chair and form a huddle, while the other advisors chose between the remaining chairs and just standing.
"Please, tell me about your city."
Ah, looking to hear about it form someone other than OL, I see.
"It's-." She sighs. "I told Orange Lantern that if I had any kind of life outside of this place, I'd have left. Heh." She sighs. "I'd like to see it fixed. But I'm not a…"
She gestures vaguely to Artemis and to me.
I think they get the sentiment. Not everyone can be empowered like that, as much as OL would like it that way. Some people definitely shouldn't.
"I can't make it happen, but for some reason Orange Lantern has decided to take pity on us. I can't.. offer you anything, but vehicle manufacturing was the only major industry we ever had, and if we can start it up again… I'll do just about anything to make that happen."
She smiles, and pulls up her shirt to show a small scar on her abdomen.
"Got mine implanted yesterday. Dubbilex told me that it.. deals with the effects of stress hormones too. I actually slept through last night."
Good for her. I can't imagine keeping this hole running
would be peaceful and relaxing.
Artemis nods. "I have seen little magic on this world. Will the Dolmen Gates cause a problem?"
"Compared to what?" She makes a helpless gesture with her right hand. "No. Orange Lantern's been using them in other places, too. He did a demonstration a couple of years ago that I.. missed. Apparently."
I nod. "Got a surprisingly knowledgeable volunteer from the audience to walk through it and everything."
Definitely would have got a few sceptics on side, I suspect.
"We can't maintain them, but we can't even maintain our road surfaces so there's nothing new there. And us even having a use for them is dependent on getting our manufacturing started up again. I've got a few people down at Dubbilex's surgery to ask people about their employment history…" She looks at me. "I don't know if you've made any progress..?"
Hey, OL can work fast, but not
that fast.
Besides, he's been busy.
"Not as yet. I've pencilled that in for tomorrow, but it will help if we've actually got accommodation and at least one plant up and running to show them."
She smiles humourlessly. "It won't be the first Catch Twenty Two I've had to deal with. So, yeah, it's a whole series of long shots but it's better than nothing."
Something of a 'lift yourself by your own bootstraps' situation, huh? Need at least one factory running to get investments, but you need investments to get one running?
Artemis nods. "Do you have a contact in the government of your world who I should speak to about our plans?"
The mayor frowns. "Our world? Um, no? We don't have a world government."
It's funny how many alien planets in fiction
do operate on 'one world, one government' ideals...
"The United Nations does not oversee your contact with other worlds?"
"I didn't even know the U.N. was still running."
TO be fair, it's not really able to do much yet, other than handle bureaucratic stuff for the League... I assume so, anyway.
Artemis looks at me. "Are you better informed?"
"Contact with other worlds would be handled at the nation-state level, if at all."
And would need to be very carefully handled to prevent other nations from getting annoyed and/or trying to horn in on them.
Artemis nods again. "Your national government, then?"
"I wasn't sure they were still running."
Eh, it's like getting a boulder rolling. Takes a lot of sweat and grunting, but once it shifts... The hard part will be stopping it from rolling too fast.
"Reconstruction is being overseen by the Justice League. Me buying things from an alien world doesn't require their involvement."
She frowns, puzzled. "Are you certain?"
Eh, once things are set up, it's easier to grandfather them into existing arrangements.
"I can try and get a meeting with President Knight if you want, but it's… Most places are under some sort of emergency rule, and the League has authority to do whatever's necessary. Until things normalise, I don't need the approval of anyone except Batman to involve you. It's not how things normally work, but this isn't a normal situation."
And given what was said about him before, it's not necessarily a good thing. Heck, I'd be lying if I didn't think this would have been a perfect time for
someone to pull a replacement gambit.
"I can't imagine having an arrangement like this on my own world. It would be… It would be the same as abdicating my throne."
I shrug, wincing inwardly.
"But if you say that is how things are, then we shall continue on that basis. Madam Mayor, how are you feeding your people?"
To be fair, a lot of said 'thrones' on Earth are still wobbly if not outright empty.
Joy of being able to customise their physiology as they do. At any rate, I hope the surgeries aren't being performed in plain sight, or there might be extra mess in the building...
Yet
